City provides area COVID-19 update

Wednesday

Apr 15, 2020 at 4:59 PM

City of Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson spoke on the city council’s recent decision to extend the "All-In Amarillo" order until April 30 during Wednesday’s COVID-19 conference.

According to the public health department’s COVID-19 report card on Wednesday, a total of 214 coronavirus cases have been reported in the area, with 92 in Potter County, 80 in Randall County and 42 outside the department’s district. There have been nine recoveries in Potter County and 11 recoveries in Randall County.

According to the report card, a total of 2,075 conducted COVID-19 tests have been reported to the department, with 232 pending.

One piece of data from the report card stood out to Nelson in making the recommendation to the city council about extending the all-in order, she said. The two age groups that show the most frequency of having the virus are individuals between the ages of 20 and 29 with 35 cases, and between the ages of 30 and 39 with 36 cases.

"I want to ask you if you know or love someone in those age categories, would you please have a conversation with them about sheltering in," she said. "I think it is possibility that they are more of our essential work force and that’s reflected in those numbers but what I want to make sure is that they understand the seriousness of how important it is for us all to be sheltered in together. We are doing this together. We are doing this as a city. The more we participate in shelter-in, the quicker our city will be able to recover, both in the health aspect but in the economic aspect as well."

Scott Milton, the public health authority for the city of Amarillo and an assistant professor at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, said the city is doing a good job with testing for the virus.

"Testing is ongoing. I think our community is doing a good job testing liberally and certainly when we compare those numbers to other cities in the state," he said. "As we have all said previously, please remember to stay home and if you have to get out in the community to please use a mask."

Casie Stoughton, the city’s public health director, spoke during the conference about preliminary demographic information regarding COVID-19 in the area. She said 51% of those tested are white, 37% are Hispanic, 6% are African American, and 6% are Asian.

Out of the four local COVID-19 deaths reported to the department, 50% are white, 25% are African American, and 25% are Asian.

Officials from area hospitals also gave updates on their respective COVID-19 situations.

Michael Lamanteer, chief medical officer at BSA Health System, said there are four cases at that hospital, with 13 patients under investigation. Lamanteer also spoke on his hospital’s improved testing platform, with them seeing a 24-hour turnaround for results.

Froy Garza, interim medical center director for the Amarillo VA Health Care System, said his hospital has one individual with a case in the ICU. The Amarillo VA Health Care System began in house testing Saturday, where they receive results within 45 minutes. As of Wednesday, all the veterans who have been tested so far have been negative for COVID-19.

Lastly, Brian Weis, chief medical officer at Northwest Texas Health Care System, said that facility has 14 people with the virus in the hospital and 22 cases under investigation.

Weis said the recent trend of positive cases has decreased.

"Since March 17, we have done 360 tests and out of those 360 tests, 75 have come back positive," Weis said. "I say the Northwest experience so far, we are seeing a bit of a smolder, which has been great. We are not seeing a peak… just a slow smolder of positives which really allow us to keep up with our resources. That’s fantastic."

During the meeting, Nelson also encouraged individuals who receive their coronavirus stimulus checks from the federal government to support local businesses. She also reminded businesses to apply for the Paycheck Protection Program loan at their banks.

"I’m begging you will do that. We need those federal dollars to come into our economy and help us to cover payroll, but most importantly, they will be available to help our economic recovery," she said. "If you think your check will be small, I’m still asking you to go through the proper channels to get your paperwork and to get your PPP loan so we can have those dollars in our local economy as we come out of this and try to recover."

The next COVID-19 update from the city will be at 11 a.m. Friday.

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